An Unknown Context of the Rapacki Plan

An initiative to create a nuclear-free zone in the territory of Poland, the FRG and the GDR was unveiled by Minister of Foreign Affairs Adam Rapacki on Oct 2, 1957 at the 12th session of the General Assembly of the UN. On the same date, also in New York, the minister of foreign affairs of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav David, declared the readiness of his country to accede to the zone. Yet Polish-Soviet consultations on a denuclearized zone had been underway already in 1956 and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had launched activities on this concept in late 1955. Throughout 1958 efforts were made to to keep the interest alive; among other things, on February 14 memorandums were addressed to the governments of the four powers and of the FRG, GDR, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Belgium and Canada, and on November 4 Minister Rapacki issued a statement which modified to some extent the initial version of the plan.